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New Memorial Opening near Rheims in France, 2nd April 2017.This memorial commemorates two American aircraft that crashed near the villages of Bourgogne (51) and Fresnes-lès-Rheims on the 1st April 1944.

of 1 April 1944 in the village of Bourgogne in the Marne
(51) department of NE France.

(NB: This is NOT the French Region known in English
as Burgundy).

Historical review :

On April 1, 1944, 245 B17 bombers and 195 B24 bombers
belonging to the 409th and 328th Bombardment Squadrons, operating from the Hardwick (Station 104) base in
Norfolk, England, departed on mission No. 287. The aim of the mission was to destroy the
chemical industries of Ludwigshafen,
Germany.

On their return 26 aircraft deviated from the route and
found themselves around Rheims
whereas they ought to have been above Lille.

The weather was bad, with very low cloud. The aircraft were flying at medium altitude. At
about 11:30 a.m. they arrived above Fresnes lès Reims nearing the village of Bourgogne.

When the planes emerged from the cloud they were chased by
Focke-Wulf 190 and BF 109 G fighters and they were caught by flak from the
nearby air base.

Two aircraft were hit. One was split in two at the tail fin which
fell just after Fresnes-lès-Reims. The front part went into a spin and crashed
in flames just before the village of Bourgogne,
very close to where the monument is to be placed.

The second aircraft hit was B 24 J 42-100248,
nicknamed “Bar Fly”, piloted by 1st/Lt EDWARD L ROBBINS, of the 409th
Bombardment Squadron. It crashed on the airfield of Courcy,
after a crew member managed to parachute out.
The plane landed about 30 meters from the burnt remains of the 1st
aircraft. The parachutist was
immediately taken prisoner by the Germans. This was S/Sgt Frank A.
Zywniczynski, fuselage gunner.

Wounded, he was taken to the hospital in Rheims and then to
the Stalag IV. Of the 19 crew members, he was the only survivor.

These young American soldiers were buried on 3 April 1944 in
the communal cemetery in the village of Bourgogne.

Later they were moved to the national necropolis of Epinal or
returned to the families in order to be buried in the United States.

The project

Here is the planned memorial as seen from above, it
symbolizes the ‘V’ victory. Plates
affixed on either side honour the crews and recount the events that occurred on
that day.

The opening is scheduled for the weekend of 1 April 2017

In order to fulfil this project, the association counts on
you.

Please make a donation by using the following link.

Thank you in advance.

Please do not hesitate to share the details of the ceremony
and please pass my email address (seb240477@sfr.fr)
to any families of the crew you may know.

We have been experiencing issues with our two main web addresses recently.www.93rd-bg-museum.org and www.93rd-bg-museum.org.uk.

This has now been resolved. The issue was caused by 'google sites' (where our site is hosted) changing the way its sites are displayed. It used to allow sites to be shown in frames, it does not any more. Unfortunately they didn't tell anyone.

'Frames' are not deemed good things on website and I try not to use them but the way our URLs were redirected to get the information from google sites involved a frame at one stage.

I have now tracked this down and removed it. The effect you will see is that our URLs are no longer displayed in the URL bar at the top of the page but instead the real google sites one is - htpps://sites.google.com/site/usaafhardwick/.

For the technical minded I have changed the CNAME redirection from INVISIBLE to VISIBLE.

ITV Anglia produced a news item on Tue 17th Sept 2013 entitiled "American airmen legacy campaign" which features the museum. Their original news item's link is below and the video clip is on this site here.

Go on, have a close look at Gallery 5, the Nose Art
gallery, more and more is being added daily until I've completed all
the photos I have from Hardwick. They are not all from 93rd either many
other groups are to be seen. Go on, have a look NOW !

The last Open Day saw stalls ranging from military models, books, uniforms, bric-a-brac, photographs, pictures plus a display of military vehicles and of course Hardwick Warbirds also had a flying day. Unfortunately due to low cloud the flying did not start until late afternoon. A great day out for all ages. Some photos have been posted on the events and tours page. The team on the ground had done a splendid job of all the huts and the mess hall (NAAFI), everything was 'spick and span'. Great job everyone and thanks to all the vistors who depleted the food and drinks supplies.

On the links page a link has been added to Laurie Atkins's blog 'American Memorial in Norfolk and Suffolk'. The blog contains locations and photographs. Give it a look, please note this is work in progress. You can contact Laurie via the FaceBook group if you spot any errors or can help with more information.

In lieu of issues with the former domain name "www.93rd-bg-museum.org.uk" I have applied for a new domain name for the site, "www.93rd-bg-museum.org". It's quite similar to the former one. When the former one does become available I shall endeavour to link the two together. WebMaster - Seth REEDER. Watch This Space .....